Not A Beautiful Christmas
by Nobody Else Just Me
Summary: AU. When James is acting like a total grinch it's up to Charlie to give him the Christmas spirit. But what happens when she accidentally exposes an unknown secret? James ends up with a visit from a sassy angel not in the mood to deal with his attitude.
1. December 20th, 2010

**12/20/10**

Christmas dwellers One and All! The time of Christmas is almost near. Get your presents, wrap them up, stash them away from kids a muck. This beautiful time of year is one favored by most especially for one teenage girl with four hockey playing friends.

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"Oh my gosh guys!" Charloette Seth Matthews exclaimed. "Christmas is only 5 days away!"

"Yeah, we kinda noticed." Kendall said referring to her outfit. She was wearing green pants with red sparkles on the side of her legs, a red shirt with a Christmas tree on it, decorated and with presents under it, a red headband with the number 5 springing on top, and elf shoes.

"Too much?"

"Just a little." Carlos said inching his fingers.

"Well, that doesn't matter because I just LOVE Christmas!~" she sang jumping up and down. They were currently on their way home from the boys hockey practice.

"We know." The boys groaned in unison.

"Don't have to get all grumpy about it." she said crossing her arms and pretending to be upset.

"We're not upset, we just know how much you love Christmas." Logan reasoned.

"We've known for 10 years." James added a little harshly. Charlie was surprised with his tone, but decided not to make a big deal about it.

"So what do you guys wanna do now?" she said standing in front of them, causing them to halt.

"We could go to my house." Kendall offered.

"We always go to your house." Carlos stated.

"Yeah cause it's fun, plus my mom is gonna need some help decorating the tree." he said looking at Charlie, who's face lit up.

"Let's go!" she said taking their hands. James pulled away harshly causing them all to stop and turn around.

"Aren't you coming with us?" She asked. He shook his head.

"I'm just gonna go home." She got closer holding his arm.

"Why? When you can have Christmas-y fun with us." she started to tug on his arm pulling him closer to them but he once again pulled away harshly, which stunned Charlie.

"Sorry, I...just don't...feel good." he said coming up with an excuse.

"Oh, well okay." she said looking down. He started to walk off in the direction to his house.

"We'll see you tomorrow James! Hope you feel better!" she called to him before walking away towards Kendall's house with the others.

When James arrived to his house, we walked through the door and straight to his room, ignoring his mother question of how school was. He slammed the door shut and threw his stuff aside. He hopped onto his bed, laying his head against his pillow. He turned his head to look out his window, where he saw little kids playing in the snow. Then one of the boys dad came out and played along with them. It was beautiful sight. A beautiful sight that made James upset. He got up from his bed and closed the blinds harshly.

He sat down on the edge of his bed, now in the dark. He leaned forward and put his head in his hand, pushing his hair back. He sighed solemnly and leaned back to lay down on his bed. A single tear escaping from his eyes and sliding down his face. He stared up at the ceiling in the dark for hours. Didn't move when his mother called him down for dinner, didn't move when she knocked on the door, didn't move when she said he had a call from Charlie. He stayed on that bed the entire day, while one teenage girl was decorating a tree with her friends feeling an empty feeling because he wasn't there.

"Do ya'll think James is okay?" She asked while Kendall put the star on top.

"Of course, why wouldn't he be?" Carlos asked.

"Well, I don't know, he was acting kinda weird today."

"He said he wasn't feeling good, that was probably it." Logan told her.

"I don't know, I still have a bad feeling."

"Why don't you go down there tomorrow morning?" Kendall said stepping off of the step ladder. "Maybe bring him some soup." She thought it over in her head.

"Sounds good. I'll make cookies too! You guys wanna tag along?"

"Can't, me and my family are getting our tree tomorrow." Carlos said.

"Family's flying in early." Logan said.

"Mom's having us clean up for her Christmas party." Kendall said.

"Fine, I'll save ya'll cookies and come by later on." she said putting her jacket on. "Well, I gotta go. My mom's leaving early tonight and I need to be there before she leaves. Bye guys!~" she called from the door. They all waved back at her and continued decorating the tree. She walked back home arriving just as her mother was about to leave.

"Hey mom." she called coming into the house to see her mom putting on her lipstick in the mirror hanging on the wall.

"Hey sweetie!" she said giving her a peck on her forehead leaving a lipstick smudge. "Listen, I'm gonna be working for the rest of the week."

"Even Christmas!" she exclaimed her heart dropping.

"No, thank goodness. I was able to get off for Christmas, but I am gonna have to work on Christmas eve."

"Oh," she said disappointed. "that's still better than you working on Christmas at least."

"Yes, plus I don't go in until late on Christmas eve, so we can decorate the tree before I leave."

"Sweet!"

"Okay, I really have to go. Be safe, don't break anything, lock all the doors and.." she trailed off getting her purse. "There's something else."

"Uh, I love you?" she asked.

"Oh! Right, Love you sweetie." she said giving her another kiss, leaving another smudge.

"Love you too mom." she said laughing at her mother's forgetfulness. She closed the door once her mother stepped into her car and drove off. She locked the door and plopped onto her couch turning on the tv to some Christmas specials. She watched for a while before turning her thoughts back to James. She decided she would call him. She picked up her house phone and called James house number.

"_Hello?_" a cheery voice answered.

"Hello Mrs. Diamond, it's Charloette."

"_Oh, hello Charloette, how are you doing?_"

"I'm good Mrs. Diamond. Is James there? I was hoping to talk to him."

"_Yes he is here. Let me get him._" shuffling noises were heard as she suspected she was going up the stairs. She heard knocks on the other side and a request for James to come out but no reply came.

"_I'm sorry Charloette he won't get out of his room. Do you want me to leave a message?_"

"No it's okay, I was just going to let him know that I was gonna come by in the morning with Soup and Cookies."

"_Oh how sweet. Well, I leave a key under the mat, I'll probably be at work by then. Just come in when you get here. I'm sure he'll appreciate this._"

"Thank you Mrs. Diamond. Well I have to go, if you can, please tell James."

"_Will do hun._" She hung up the phone.

"Now, I'm starting to worry." she said to herself, wondering what was with her friends mood. "No, I'm probably just being paranoid. He said he wasn't feeling good, that's probably just it. Tomorrow I will see that James is back to being his normal self." she looked around the room and sighed. "I have got to stop talking to myself."  


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**So yeah, James won my poll by one vote. I hope you like this, I'll update when I can today and tomorrow. It won't be very long. A chapter for each day until Christmas. Next one will be on the 21st. Hope you like it.**


	2. December 21st, 2010

**12/21/10**

4 Days till Christmas, Whoopee! Just around the corner, a girl I see. Come with soup and cookies and even tea. Bringing things that James will need.

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Charlie was walking on the sidewalk to Jame's house. She was wearing white pants with green converse, a green shirt with an elf on it,and a Santa hat with the number 4 written on the white part. She wore a thin jacket to keep warm, unfortunately it was a little too thin and she was shaking the entire time to Jame's house.

In her hands she held a basket filled with a thermos filled with soup, Christmas cookies, and bags of Tea she got last minute for Mrs. Diamond. She strolled all the way their happy to see her friend, hopefully in a better mood.

She arrived to the Diamond residence in no time and checked under the mat, happy to see a key just like Mrs. Diamond had said. She unlocked the door and carefully stepped into the house, not wanting to disturb the possibly asleep boy.

"Hello?" she called. "James, are you here?" she closed the door behind her softly. She walked into the kitchen setting down her basket of goodies. She took off her jacket and set it on one of the chairs.

She decided to take a tour of the house, considering she hadn't been at James' house in over a month. They would always hang out at Kendall's. She walked up the stairs looking up and down the hallway. She walked down the hallway to what she remembered as James' room. She took her steps slowly as if she was in a haunted house. Although, the eerie silence wasn't helping the mood.

Once she reached his door she hesitated to knock on it, but finally found the courage to.

"James?" she called. "Are you in there?" On the other side of the door a head shot up.

"Charlie?"

"Hey! Your up!" he got up from his bed and started to put on some clothes.

"What are you doing in my house?"

"I called you yesterday to tell you I was gonna come by but you were in your room, so I told your mom and she left a key under the mat." he started to comb his hair. "Can I come in?" he finished and opened the door, looking up and down towards her outfit.

"You don't like?" she asked. He didn't answer and just walked out of his room closing the door behind him.

"Why are you here?" he asked walking down the stairs her trailing behind. He walked into the kitchen to see the basket she brought on the table. "What's this?"

"I brought you some soup also some Christmas cookies and Tea for your mom." she said taking the stuff out of the basket.

"What are you, Little Red Riding Hood?" he said taking a bite of one of the cookies. "Good Cookies."

"Thanks, and I was trying to help you feel better." he stopped eating and looked at her.

"Whadya mean?"

"You said you weren't feeling good," she picked up the thermos. "So I made soup for you to feel better."

"And the cookies?"

"It's Christmas!" she said cheerfully. He rolled his eyes, then looked at the thermos.

"You didn't have to make me soup."

"Of course I did silly!" she said pouring the soup into the cap of the thermos and sitting him down. "Now drink, it's chicken noodle~" he took the soup and drank it gratefully.

"Better?" she said sitting next to him.

"Uh...Yeah." he put the cup down and stared at it blankly.

"So..." Charlie broke the silence after several minutes.

"Where are the guys?"

"Oh, they couldn't come cause they had stuff to do but I said I'd drop by and hand out cookies. Wanna come with?" He shook his head.

"Nah, I just wanna stay home." Charlie raised an eyebrow.

"James Diamond, are you telling me that you would rather stay home, were no one can see you, then outside were you can flaunt your dazzling good looks?"

"Uh...Yeah." She got up from her chair.

"Oh no your not." She grabbed his arm and dragged him up the stair and into the bathroom. "You take a shower and get beautified, I'll get your clothes. We're leaving in 10 minutes." she closed the door on him and he just started the shower knowing it's best not to argue against Charlie. In less than 5 minutes he was showered and dressed. He blew dry his hair and neatly combed it out and was done within the time she gave him.

"You ready?" she called from the front door.

"Yeah." he walked out of the bathroom and down the stairs. He retrieved his jacket and walked out the front door with her.

They visited Carlos first, seeing him and his 3 other sisters fighting over what tree to get. They finally chose a nice small one that they all thought was adorable. Charlie handed out her cookies to Felicia, Rosalinda, Maria, Carlos, Mr. and Mrs. Garcia, even the guy who was loading the tree into the car. With her job done she moved on to Logan's house.

When arriving to Logan's house she was bombarded with relatives of his. There was his Cousins Albert, Claire and Heather, who were twins, from his mothers side with his Aunt Tanya and Uncle Tommy. And his cousins Lily and Shelby, also twins, from his fathers side, with his Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Alan. She was barely had enough cookies for all of them. Thankfully she decided to make a lot. She gave Logan his cookie, wished him good luck and left with James.

Next stop was Kendall's. They got their just when they were done cleaning. They were very thankful for the treat. His mother responded by giving gingerbread to her and James. She bit into the leg eating up while he bit into the head eating down. They said there goodbyes and left.

"You having fun yet?" she asked him as they walked blindly on the sidewalk.

"It's been...okay." she looped her arm through his.

"We'll have to fix that!" She started to run toward the woods, dragging James along.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see!" she didn't stop, and only slowed down when they reached their destination. They stopped in front of a couple of giant trees.

"Ok, why'd you bring me here?" She pulled away some branches to show the view behind them. There he saw a beautiful frozen pond. There was also a bench on the side with a wooden box next to it.

"Whoa."

"I know." she said. "I found it at the beginning of the month. Although then it was all chipped and stuff, but then I started coming everyday and fixing it, shoveling more snow building the extra little stuff. That kinda stuff. I even managed to set this up." She walked over to a little generator. She flipped it on and lights started to sparkle around them in the trees.

"It's beautiful!" he said in awe.

"Yeah, I worked really hard for it to be like that. Wanna skate?" James looked at her confused.

"But we don't have skates." she walked over to the box and pulled out two pairs of skates. One pair with a bow on it.

"Where did you get those?"

"I was planning on bringing all of you here as a Christmas present," she gestured the skates with a bow on it towards him. "These are yours." She sat down with her skates and Jame's on the bench. "C'mon!"

He walked over to her and grabbed his new skates. By the time he put them on Charlie was already on the ice. They skated together for hours. Chasing each other, Charlie doing spins, anything you could think of. By the time they were done it was almost 11:00. Charlie walked James back to his house, talking about their adventures for that day.

"I had a lot of fun today."

"Bet your glad I forced you out, huh?" James laughed.

"Yeah, I am." They walked up to his door.

"Thanks Charloette."

"For what?" she asked confused.

"For watching out for me." She smiled.

"Don't thank me, I was just doing it cause you needed some cheering up. You've been acting weird lately."

"I have?"

"Yeah, you must be getting a fever or something."

"Oh...yeah. Well I'll just drink the rest of that soup."

"Good. Well I gotta get home. Bye James." she gave him a hug and a peck on the cheek before making her journey home.

James opened the door, to see his mother in the kitchen making meatloaf.

"Hey James! Your out late. Where were you?"

"Just hanging out with Charlie mom." he started to walk up the stair when his mom came out of the kitchen looking up at her son.

"Did you have a good time?"

"Yeah. She brought you some tea." he mumbled about to walk into his room until his mother called out his name.

"Do you wanna talk son?"

"About what?" he asked even though he knew exactly what she was talking about.

"Well, it's just with your fath-"

"It's okay mom! I'm fine!" he said storming into his room. He slammed his door harshly and jumped onto his bed, trying to prevent the tears that were threatening to fall.

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**Wow, haven't updated this since last year. I hope to have like most of the chapters later on tonight so watch out!**


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